...Seiichi Uchikawa felt tightness in his right calf and was held out of Saturday's game.

...Yoshitomo Tsutsugo started at first and batted ninth against the Hanshin Tigers on Saturday and went 0-for-3: fly out to third, strike out, and strike out.  It was his first starting since 2/27.  He also borrowed Uchikawa's first baseman's glove.

...The Bay Stars lost again on Saturday, meaning Takao Obana's exhibition game record 0-6-2.

=== 11:16pm JST

...Hayato Terahara will be starting Saturday's game against the Hanshin Tigers.  Terahara gave up 6 stolen bases during his last start.  To that end, he's been working on his pick-off move and pitching from the set position.

=== 8:07pm JST

...The Bay Stars are still the only team without a win during exhibition play.  And while they didn't lose on Thursday against the Nippon Ham Fighters, they still couldn't pull out a win.  What's more, the line-up combined for 11 strike outs, 4 hits, and one caught stealing.

The Bay Stars are 0-5-2.  They have a team batting average of .236 and have scored 14 runs while giving up 25.  Their team ERA is 3.15.

If the Bay Stars don't record a win on Saturday, it would give Takao Obana the worst start to a year by a new manager (not sure if it's actually specific to exhibition play or to the regular season).

...It seems Yoshitomo Tsutsugo could be demoted to Ni-gun as early as the 14th when the Bay Stars play the Orix Buffaloes.

=== 3/12/2010 1:12am JST

...Takao Obana is apparently contemplating whether he should demote Yoshitomo Tsutsugo or not.  Demoting him would give him more at bats than he could get while at Ichi-gun.

=== 3:44pm JST

...The Bay Stars introduced their special limited edition uniforms on Thursday.  The uniforms have stars on both sleeves, are 15% lighter than regular uniforms, and will be worn during the first game of each multi-game series at home.  Interested fans can get more information about how to purchase the limited edition uniforms, as well as see a sample of the new design, at the Bay Stars' official website.

...The Yokohama Bay Stars are the only team that has not won an exhibition game yet (0-5-1).  The team finished with a 6-9-4 record last year.

...Club president Takao Kaji walked around in the right field stands on Wednesday in order to meet and greet the fans.

=== 3/11/2010 1:43am JST

...I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but Hiratsuka Stadium was apparently one of the first stadiums in Japan to fix the way they display balls and strikes.  And it seems they made preparations to have everything ready for Tuesday's game, which ended up getting rained out.  They will have another chance on the 22nd during an Eastern League game (Shonan vs Yakult).

=== 3/10/2010 11:37pm JST

...Yokohama Stadium president Hiroshi Tsuruoka told reporters that he's thinking about changing the order of balls and strikes on the scoreboard for the sake of the players and fans.  Tsuruoka has received approval from the Bay Stars.  The plan is to have the new order ready for the start of the regular season.

...Hayato Terahara apparently changed the kanji spelling of his name on the advice of a friend.

...Daisuke Miura was supposed to start on Tuesday.  Due to the rain, it was washed out and now he'll likely pitch 1-2 innings in relief on the 10th against the Softbank Hawks.

...The Bay Stars were walking advertisements during the team's pep rally on Monday.  All 88 people connected to the team (players, coaches, manager, and other staff) wore suit sets pulled together by 6 different stores from Yokohama.  In total, the 7-piece set (suit, button down shirt, necktie, cuff links, handkerchief, belt, and shoes) apparently costs about 250,000yen.

...The Bay Stars announced that Yoshitomo Tsutsugo will now be officially listed as a left-handed hitter, instead of as a switch-hitter.  They will also be changing the registered kanji characters for Hayato Terahara's name from 寺原隼人 to 寺原早人.  The reason: Terahara was injured last season and told reporters he wanted a fresh start in 2010.

...It costs Hiratsuka Stadium about 130M yen to modify the scoreboard so that it can display the count balls to strike.

...Two marriages:

The Bay Stars announced on Monday that 23-year-old Noriharu Yamazaki filed marriage papers with 36-year-old Aya Kojima (小嶋亜矢 ?).

The media learned also learned on Monday that Tatsuya Shimozono will be filing marriage papers with a Rie Iwashita.  The two apparently met with a common friend and it was love at first sight for Shimozono.

...Takao Obana told guests at a pep rally held at a hotel in Yokohama that he's thinking about going with the following pitchers for the starting rotation: Daisuke Miura, Naoyuki Shimizu, Stephen Randolph, Shun Yamaguchi, and Hayato Terahara.  He added that if it was possible, he'd like to go with a five-man rotation.

About 1,200 people, including Yokohama mayor Fumiko Hayashi, attended the event.

...Yota Kosugi gave up 3 runs (all earned) on 4 hits and 2 walk over 2.1 innings.  He faced 12 batters in all and threw 50 pitches.  All that adds up to a demotion to Ni-gun.  Said Takao Obana, "The way he uses the curve, he doesn't know how to throw waste pitches inside.  We gave him a chance but he didn't take it."

...The Bay Stars finally broke through on a 2-run double by Shuichi Murata in the 3rd inning against the Rakuten Eagles on Sunday.  Masahiro Tanaka was on the mound.  They had gone 13 straight innings without scoring a run.  Murata had also gone 3 straight games without an RBI (eight consecutive plate appearances).  He finished Sunday's game, 3-for-3 with a double and 2 RBIs.

...Seiichi Uchikawa was 0-for-11 with a walk prior to picking up a single in his final at bat on Sunday.

...Eight of ten base-runners were successful in stealing a base against the Bay Stars on Friday.  Of the eight stolen bases, six came with Hayato Terahara on the mound.  And while there is some concern that Terahara may have been tipping something (Sponichi mentions that most of the stolen bases came on off-speed pitches), Takao Obana said that pitchers and catchers have to do a better job working together.

The Bay Stars will likely go over video to see if Terahara was doing anything to help the base-runners get a good jump.

...Yoshitomo Tsutsugo had a chance to meet Sadaharu Oh prior to the game on Friday.  Oh told reporters that he was looking forward to Tsutsugo's bright future.

...The Bay Stars finally broke through with a run on Friday.  Terrmel Sledge led off the top of the 5th with a solo home run.

...The Bay Stars are thinking about allowing Yoshitomo Tsutsugo to stay with the Ichi-gun team during exhibition play.  The current plan appears to involve testing Tsutsugo out as a pinch hitter with runners on base.  Tsutsugo went 0-for-1 as a pinch hitter on Friday against the Softbank Hawks.

=== 3/5/2010 1208:am JST

...Seiichi Uchikiawa is going to try using a mouth guard.  He'll be wearing one beginning on the 5th.

=== 3/4/2010 9:34pm JST

...Takao Obana likes what he sees in Yoshitomo Tsutsugo.  So much so that he's now apparently thinking about having him work in the outfield to get him more at bats (the other coaches agreed with him during a meeting on Tuesday).  With Shuichi Murata at third, Tsutsugo likely won't get to see much action there.  To that end, Tsutsugo worked out for about 20 minutes in right field prior to an exhibition game on Wednesday.

...According to Sponichi, the Bay Stars have not recorded a run scoring hit in 32 innings consecutive innings (2 exhibition games and 2 practice games).  In looking over the games, they did score a run on a sac fly hit by Keijiro Matsumoto over those 32 innings.  And it seems as though the last timely hit they got was a home run off the bat of Yuki Takamori against the Nippon Ham Fighters on 2/23 (5th inning).